There have been a lot of concerns which surfaced on the safety of metal-on-metal hip implants. The Food and Drug Administration has now acknowledged these concern and has assured that them into notice. It added that it would look into the matter and would issue a review that would lead to an up gradation of current standards.

FDA has also announced an advisory panel to look into the matter which would gather inputs from scientists, researchers, patients and medical practitioners in order to put down new regulation that would help in the future testing standards and reviews. This would help in approval of device before it can be sold in the United States.

Dr. William Maisel, Deputy Director of science at the F. D. A.’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health has asked scientific and medical experts to provide information which would help in up gradation of standards on these devices so that the agency can continue to make reliable safety recommendations.

Hip replacement surgery is a common procedure which is carried out to provide adequate mobility to people with joint problems, including arthritis. It is also very costly surgery, costing nearly $17,000. There are nearly 270,000 hip replacement performed each year in the US alone. But in recent times, there have been many cases in which metal-on-metal hip replacements failed. People who have received them have also shown high concentration of metal ions in their blood.

That is why these concerns are pretty practical and there has to be tighter norms that a device is subject to before it is approved for the general use. With FDA stepping onto the matter, there is hope that the patients would be subject to better equipment which would not pose harm to their health.